Government Owes Federal Workers Double for 2013 Shutdown

The government didn’t act in “good faith” when it failed to pay “essential” workers during the 2013 shutdown, and it will now have to pay double the amount of unpaid back wages to more than 25,000 federal employees, the workers’ attorney told Bloomberg BNA (Martin v. USA, Fed. Cl., No. 1:13-cv-00834, 2/13/17).

A federal judge found in 2014 that the government violated the Fair Labor Standards Act when it withheld the essential employees’ pay until two weeks after their actual pay date. Employers can avoid having to pay double or “liquidated” damages if they failed to pay workers ...